MELT CRYSTALLIZATION - PROCESS ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION

Melt crystallization manufacturing systems are characterized mathematically and optimized. Directional solidification and sweating are modeled, and the results are correlated to plant data. A nonlinear programming algorithm is constructed to determine the optimal design and operation of a production plant. Process constraints include product purity, process yield, captial cost, phase equilibria, kinetic, and operational factors. An objective function is constructed from scaled yield and capital outlay formulae, and is optimized over a variably constrained feasible space. The dependence of the optima on the separation distribution coefficients and on the constraints is given for specific one-stage examples for three operational regimes. The one-stage analyses are applied for the solution of the n-stage problem.